Sue Woolfe is the author of six mainstream-published works of fiction, including the acclaimed best-selling, internationally translated Leaning Towards Infinity which won Australia’s distinguished prize, the Christina Stead Award, for the year it was published, as well as the Asia Pacific Region section of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was shortlisted for the Tip Tree prize in the US. It was short-listed for almost every major Australian prize, It was translated into French, Italian, and Dutch, and in 1999 was named by US/Australian novelist Jack Dann as one of the most important books of the century. Now it’s published by Untapped Books.
Her first novel, Painted Woman was also nominated for the Commonwealth Prize, and runner-up in the Australian Bicentennial Award. It was republished here several times, and in France in 2007. She has adapted both novels for ABC radio and for the professional stage, both have won Heritage Books Awards (now also available from Untapped). Her third novel, The Secret Cure, (publisher UWA) is currently being adapted for an opera. Her fourth novel, The Oldest Song in the World, (2012, Harper Collins) is now available as an ebook. Her fifth is a collection of short stories (2017,Simon and Schuster) Do You Love Me or What? And now, her sixth, the novel she had to write.
Sue Woolfe taught Creative Writing at Sydney University. At NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) she taught what neuroscience knows about creativity to playwrights at NIDA, and to composers in The School of Music, ANU (Australian National University). She has co-authored with Kate Grenville to acclaim, Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written (Allen and Unwin 1991) and as solo author her PhD thesis: The Mystery of the Cleaning Lady: a Novelist looks at Neuroscience and Creativity (UWA 2007), and numerous scholarly chapters and papers. She has taken overseas many creativity writing retreats.
A preview of what she teaches here.
And most nights, she dances Tango, Argentinian style.
